Denver Nuggets

Denver has won 9 straight and I believe they are quite underrated. I am not saying they are going to win an NBA championship but they could make some noise in the playoffs.

Their starters are quite solid. Ty Lawson is really playing well averaging 23 and 7 since the all-star break.

But its their bench that I really like. Wilson Chandler has been injured most of the year but he is a quality player. Andre Miller, McGee. Corey Brewer has been improving. Mozgoz and Anthony Randolph. They still have youngsters in Fournier and Jordan Hamilton - Alot of us on here thought he would be taken higher than the 26th overall selection. With limited minutes who knows how these two will develop in the future....

scariest team right now. they are the team that nobody wants to play at the moment. they have as good a shot as anybody but the heat. and i only say the heat because of the cake walk the heat have to get to the finals in the east.

Tonight vs the suns Koufos had 22 points and 10 rebounds on 10-11 shooting. Pretty impressive even if it was just one game versus a team minus their starting center due to injury. And I agree their bench I great I love Andre miller as a veteran player.

What I like most about this team is the joy they express and the perfect mix of athletic players, veterans, defenders and and skills. Lawson is really developing as a player after the all star break finding consistency.

Yeah, deepest team in the league. Problem is in the playoffs with at least a night off between every game and longer TV timeouts, you can play your starters major minutes. Ty is good and playing great. But the Clippers are going to role out 40 minutes of CP3 every game. Same thing for teams like the Lakers. All there starters will play huge minutes and their bench will not be as exposed.

On a side note, I suspect this year people are going to underrate the Spurs. Nuggets aren't beating the Spurs in a 7 game series. Timmy D is playing defense like its 2005 (albeit over less minutes), Tony Parker has emerged as a Top 5 player in this league (should be back for playoffs), Kawhi Leonard is quietly becoming one of the best young wings in the NBA and Tiago Splitter is now an extremely efficient big man that helps on both sides of the floor.

It seems like everybody on that team save Manu has improved since last year

Ehh. I see what you guys are saying, but fresh legs is only one part of bench play. Ideally, you'd play your best players the entire game, but that's not going to happen, so you're going to want your second unit to outplay the other team's second unit. Denver's is about as good as there is in the league.

I wouldn't exactly pick Denver as a finals team, but their bench is something they can use to their advantage.

Lawson, Chandler, Brewer, Iguodala, Faried, Galinari (not a big fan of his but he can get hot) are all guys who can put up 20 any night. All comes down to defense and getting in transition. They have the athletes to play it but doing it in the the playoffs vs SA OKC and LA is tough.
The Andre Miller-Javale McGee combo is pretty sick off the bench too.. Two polar opposite players but old man Miller is always looking for the lob to Javale. Put Andre Millers head on McGee's body and you have the best big man in the league.

Hard to figure the West playoffs. Denver and Memphis have been excellent lately, and the Rockets and (sigh) the Lakers are going to be tougher than most usual 7-8 seeds. The 3 spot is so key for Memphis/LAC/Denver. Golden State may be the weakest team in these playoffs.